are regular harangues, a chain completed in every link, without interruption or interval. That of Antiochus in Berenice † resembles a regular pleading, where the parties pro and con difplay their arguments at full length. The following foliloquies are equally deftitute of propriety: Bajazet, a&t 3. fc. 7. Mithridate, act 3. fc. 4. & act. 4. fc. 5. a& Iphigenia, a&t 4. fc. 8. Soliloquies upon lively or interesting fubje&s, but. without any turbulence of paffion, may be carried on in a continued chain of thought. If, for example, the nature and fprightlinefs of the fubject prompt a man to speak his thoughts in the form of a dialogue, the expreffion must be carried on without break or interruption, as in a dialogue betwixt two perfons. This justifies Falstaff's foliloquy upon honour. What need I be so forward with Death, that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter, Honour pricks me on. But how if Honour prick me off, when I come on? how then? Can Honour fet a leg? No: or an arm? No: or take away the grief of a wound: No: Honour hath no skill in furgery then: No. What is Honour? A word.-What is that word bonour? Air; a trim reckoning.--Who hath it? He that dy'd a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it infenfible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No: Why? Detraction will not fuffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it; honour is a mere fcutcheon; and fo ends my catechism. First part Henry IV. act. 5. Sc. 2. And even without dialogue, a continued discourse may be justified, where the foliloquy is upon an important subject that makes a ftrong impreffion, but without much agitation. For if it be at all excufable + Act 1. fc. 2. Ch. XVII. cufable to think aloud, it is neceffary that the language with the reafoning be carried on in a chain · without a broken link. In this view that admirable foliloquy in Hamlet upon life and immortality, being a ferene meditation upon the most interesting of all fubjects, ought to escape censure. And the fame confideration will juftify the foliloquy that introduces the 5th act of Addifon's Cato.. The next clafs of the groffer errors which all writers ought to avoid, fhall be of language elevated above the tone of the fentiment; of which takę the following instances. Zara. Swift as occafion, I Myfelf will fly; and earlier than the morn Wake thee to freedom. Now 'tis late; and yet Some news few minutes paft arriv'd, which feem'd To shake the temper of the King Who knows What racking cares disease a monarch's bed? Or love, that late at night still lights his lamp, And strikes his rays through dusk, and folded lids, Forbidding reft, may ftretch his eyes awake, And force their balls abroad at this dead hour. I'll try. Mourning Bride, act 3. fc. 4. The language here is undoubtedly too pompous and laboured for defcribing fo fimple a circumftance as abfence of fleep. In the following paffage, the tone of the language, warm and plaintive, is well fuited to the paffion, which is recent grief. But every one will be fenfible, that in the laft couplet fave one, the tone is changed, and the mind fuddenly elevated to be let fall as fuddenly in the last couplet. Il déteste à jamais fa coupable victoire, Il renounce à la cour, aux humains, à la gloire; Il va cacher fa peine au bout de l'univers ; Le nom, le trifte nom, de fon malheureux fils. Henriade, chant. viii. 229. Language too artificial or too figurative for the gravity, dignity, or importance, of the occafion, be put in a third clafs.. may Chimene demanding juftice against Rodrigue who killed her father, instead of a plain and pathetic expoftulation, makes a fpeech ftuffed with the most artificial flowers of rhetoric: Sire, mon pere eft mort, mes yeux ont vû fon fang: Son flanc etoit ouvert, et, pour mieux m'emouvoir Nothing can be contrived in language more averfe to the tone of the paffion than this florid fpeech.. VOL. I. R I should I should imagine it more apt to provoke laughter than to infpire concern or pity. In a fourth clafs fhall be given fpecimens of language too light or airy for a fevere pailion.. The agony a mother must feel upon the favage murder of two hopeful fons, rejects all imagery and figurative expreffion, as difcordant in the higheft degree. Therefore the following paffage is undoubtedly in a bad taste: poor Queen. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender My unblown flow'rs, new-appearing fweets! Again, Richard III. act 4. fc. 4. K. Philip. You are as fond of grief as of your child. Conftance. Grief fills the room up of child, my abfent Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,. King John, act 3. fc. 6.. A thought that turns upon the expression instead of the fubject, commonly called a play of words, being low and childish, is unworthy of any compefition, whether gay or ferious, that pretends to the imalleft fhare of dignity. Thoughts of this kind make a fifth class. In the Aminta of Taffo* the lover falls into a mere play of words, demanding how he who had loft himself, could find a mistress. And for the fame reason, the following paffage in Corneille has been generally condemned: Chimene. Mon pere eft mort, Elvire, et la pre- Dont s'eft armé Rodrigue à fa trame coupée. To die is to be banish'd from myself: Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 3. fc. 3. Countefs. I pray thee, lady, have a better cheer: If thou ingroffeft all the griefs as thine, Thou robb'ft me of a moiety. All's well that ends well, at 3. fc. 3. K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, fick with civif blows! When that my care could not with-hold thy riots, Second part, Henry IV. act 4. fc. II. Cruda Amarilli, che col nome ancora Paftor Fido, act 1. fc. 2.. Antony fpeaking of Julius Cæfar: O world! thou waft the foreft of this hart; How * A&t 1. fc. 2. |